How 5 Girls Are Crushing Gender Stereotypes

Allie Westover, Skyler Westover, Ella Jacobs, Daphne Mortenson and Taylor Alcozer – who call themselves the Unicorns – aren’t the first girls to try to join the 105-year-old boys-only organization, according to the New York Times. The girls, ranging in age from 10 to 13, formed an alternate scouting group called the Unicorns after becoming bored with the activities offered by their local Girl Scouts troop, like selling cookies and writing letters.SANTA ROSA (California) — Five girls wearing makeshift scout uniforms stood before top Boy Scout brass this month and made an announcement: We want in. “I want to be a Boy Scout,” Allie Westover, 13, told a panel of men in khaki uniforms weighted by pins and patches.

After taking a skill-building course for both boys and girls affiliated with the Boy Scouts last fall, the girls bought uniforms similar to the boys’ and starting attending pack meetings and camping trips. In order to move from one level to another, Boy Scouts must meet with a scout master to review their progress and then appear before a board of review, where six officials will either approve or deny their advancement. These girls — the latest of many over the decades who have sought to become Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts instead of Brownies and Girl Scouts — say they would rather be camping and tying knots than selling cookies. We can do everything the boys can do.” The Unicorns proved that was the case earlier this year, when they competed against dozens of male groups in a scouting competition and came in second place.

While they displayed their proficiency in activities like hiking and using a sling shot, they cannot earn merit badges or set out on the path to becoming Eagle Scouts, the ultimate honour for a Boy Scout. A meeting was called Nov. 13 to tell the girls why they could no longer participate in Boy Scout activities, and each girl handed a scout application to the panel of male scout leaders dressed in the iconic khaki uniforms. The six levels are: Daisies (kindergarten-grade 1), Brownies (grades 2-3), Juniors (grades 4-5), Cadettes (grades 6-8), Seniors (grades 9-10) and Ambassadors (grades 10-12).

They bought uniforms that mimicked the boys’ ones, and bested dozens of Boy Scout groups at a competition, where they earned second place overall after out-performing other teams in skills like backpacking and slingshot. The local Boy Scout council told the Unicorns that they didn’t have the authority to let them in, but would forward their request to the national Boy Scout office. There is precedent for including girls in traditionally male scouting organisations, including in the UK where the Scout Association began offering membership in all programs to girls in 1991. From sixth grade onwards, they can “also explore careers in science and technology, travel the world, discover nature and take on projects that transform their community”. Despite the similarities between the programs, a 2011 study in Gender & Society, a journal focused on gender studies, found that Girl Scouts are generally discouraged from scientific pursuits while Boy Scouts are pushed away from artistic interests.

The study found that the girls are offered more art activities than the boys, but science activities make up only 2% of their activities and 6% for the boys. She waved a fistful of ribbons: first place in team building, second in backpacking, third in slingshot. “There’s no really ‘girl things’ or ‘boy things’.” But expanding the definition of “Boy Scout” is alarming some parents, who voiced concerns about the prospect of shared tents, the erosion of valuable boys-only time and the possibility that girls * who already outperform boys in many areas * might start to snap up all the leadership positions. “I have sons,” said Ms Jennifer Masterson, 54, a scout leader in the same region as the Unicorns who said she felt uneasy about the idea of coed scouting. “Would I want a girl sleeping in my son’s tent? Allie told ABC7 News: “For me, being a girl among the boys it was a place where I learned to work with just not people of my own gender, but people of the opposite gender who I am going to have to work with when I get into the real world.” The girls’ activities are more communal, with 30% of their badge work taking place in groups, while the boys work is more self-oriented with less than 20% of their work taking place in a group. At the meeting, they deposited formal applications to become Boy Scouts, who forwarded the applications to national headquarters. “It felt like they were saying no to us, but they didn’t want to say it with all the cameras,” Daphne Mortenson told the San Francisco Chronicle.

No.” Another Northern California scout leader, Randy Huffman, 56, said he felt similarly uncomfortable. “Maybe their approach should have been to go to the Girl Scouts and say: Instead of painting our nails and clipping our ‘whatever they do’ to do archery and do climbing. The study also found that boys were instructed to look for answers in the back of their guide, something that “fosters intellectual dependence and passivity”, whereas girls were encouraged to do original research.

The steps are: “identify an issue”, “investigate it thoroughly”, “get help and build your team”, “create a plan”, “present your plan and gather feedback”, “take action” and “educate and inspire”. Some past projects that earned Gold Awards included raising awareness about child abuse in Puerto Rico and raising awareness of historically segregated schools that shaped the education of many African American students in the south.